Metro Manila started a 30-day “community quarantine” midnight of Sunday, March 15, 2020 to contain the spread of the COVID-19.
The initial quarantine involves a ban on land, domestic air and sea travel in and out of NCR. Police and military personnel were deployed to manage peace and order. No one can leave or enter the region except health personnel, authorized government officials and workers that provide basic necessities and food preparation services.
Classes in all levels are suspended for a month. Malls, public places and most business establishments are closed until further notice, while church services and masses are also suspended for the meantime. Curfews were enforced by many cities in Metro Manila.
But then since the first announcement, many have scampered to supermarkets that shelves had been emptied when panicked shoppers bought alcohol, toilet paper, canned goods, meat products, bread, etc. by the bulk. Bus stations suddenly had an influx of passengers racing to go home to their provinces to avoid the lockdown.
It’s just like Christmas rush all over again, only that the atmosphere is far from happy.
Monday evening, the president addressed the country again and declared an “enhanced community quarantine” over the whole Philippine island of Luzon. This was after the initial quarantine failed miserably.
On the first working day of the community quarantine last Monday, several checkpoints choked the borders of Metro Manila with people, mainly workers, who are trying to get in and out. Public transportation remained jampacked with commuters while people gather together on common areas defeating the call for social distancing.
We can’t blame the wage-earners who almost forced their way as there was no clear directive for the workers in the private sector. It became a question of risking their lives to the virus over putting their income and livelihood in jeopardy.
So for the enhanced community quarantine, the president said that work and mass public transport stoppage will be enforced as well, only this threw many of us in more chaos and confusion.
As of this writing, we have a total of 187 confirmed cases in the country and this is expected to rise even with the quarantine in place.
With the suspension of major transportation (including TNVS) and strong call to stay home, workers are faced with having to choose their livelihood over their safety. While some criticize them for it, only a person who knows what it’s like to live in poverty and on a day-to-day basis can understand their plight. It’s easy for the middle and upper class to stay home when the government asks them to, because whether we admit it or not, social distancing is a privilege.
Inequality has never been so obvious.
Apart from the frontliners, the poor people living in crowded and impoverished areas, the working class is the sector most at risk to get infected by the virus because they are the ones who can’t afford to just stay home.
While private companies are strongly encouraged to be open for “work-from-home” arrangements and were also asked to provide temporary accommodations to their employees, we all know this is not something that all companies can offer.
Yet I consider myself luckier than most people because our management is very open to the possibility of us working from home. Pilot testing is ongoing to check if the systems and applications can be accessed from our homes. Then there’s that sticky issue of Data Privacy Laws which had to be considered since it’s something we strongly adhere to. They continue to say that health and safety of the employees is their top priority but of course, the management is still trying to preserve business continuity.
While a quarantine is better than nothing, I can’t help but think if this would even be as effective as many of us hope in limiting the contagion. Many still violate the quarantine directives, not learning any lesson from what happened to Italy.
I’m also worried about the long-term effects such as lost of income and livelihood for many daily wage earners, especially when I’m not aware of any contingency measures laid out by the government to financially help them. I am concerned about the impact it’ll do for the industry I’m in (travel and hospitality) and to the entire country’s economy most of all.
In my lifetime I have lived through a massive earthquake, volcanic eruption, strong typhoons and flooding, even coup d'état and military takeover attempts. But nothing that paralyzed the country such as this. Nothing that forced people to stay confined in their homes.
Our usually noisy, crowded neighborhood can now past for a set of The Walking Dead no matter the time of day. Everyone is asked to stay inside their houses (we can only go out to buy our essentials). An 8:00PM - 5:00AM curfew is also observed.
If you think I’m even enjoying this, think again.
But it is what it is. I have to stay at home because even with the precautions, the number of confirmed cases continue to rise. More than what it will do to me income-wise, I’m more worried about catching the virus without me even knowing it, and going home to the kids and my elderly mother.
I hope that we have already seen the worst, and that we can all get through this.
 |
| An empty street as viewed from my bedroom window |
Classes in all levels are suspended for a month. Malls, public places and most business establishments are closed until further notice, while church services and masses are also suspended for the meantime. Curfews were enforced by many cities in Metro Manila.
But then since the first announcement, many have scampered to supermarkets that shelves had been emptied when panicked shoppers bought alcohol, toilet paper, canned goods, meat products, bread, etc. by the bulk. Bus stations suddenly had an influx of passengers racing to go home to their provinces to avoid the lockdown.
It’s just like Christmas rush all over again, only that the atmosphere is far from happy.
Monday evening, the president addressed the country again and declared an “enhanced community quarantine” over the whole Philippine island of Luzon. This was after the initial quarantine failed miserably.
On the first working day of the community quarantine last Monday, several checkpoints choked the borders of Metro Manila with people, mainly workers, who are trying to get in and out. Public transportation remained jampacked with commuters while people gather together on common areas defeating the call for social distancing.
We can’t blame the wage-earners who almost forced their way as there was no clear directive for the workers in the private sector. It became a question of risking their lives to the virus over putting their income and livelihood in jeopardy.
So for the enhanced community quarantine, the president said that work and mass public transport stoppage will be enforced as well, only this threw many of us in more chaos and confusion.
***
As of this writing, we have a total of 187 confirmed cases in the country and this is expected to rise even with the quarantine in place.
With the suspension of major transportation (including TNVS) and strong call to stay home, workers are faced with having to choose their livelihood over their safety. While some criticize them for it, only a person who knows what it’s like to live in poverty and on a day-to-day basis can understand their plight. It’s easy for the middle and upper class to stay home when the government asks them to, because whether we admit it or not, social distancing is a privilege.
Inequality has never been so obvious.
Apart from the frontliners, the poor people living in crowded and impoverished areas, the working class is the sector most at risk to get infected by the virus because they are the ones who can’t afford to just stay home.
While private companies are strongly encouraged to be open for “work-from-home” arrangements and were also asked to provide temporary accommodations to their employees, we all know this is not something that all companies can offer.
It’s been two days since the enhanced quarantine and here I am cooped up in my room most of the time (the only time I went out is to go to a nearby grocery). Nothing has been laid out yet on how we’ll be for the coming days. I don’t even know if the company will pay us for the days we aren’t in the office, or if they’ll take it out on our leaves.
Yet I consider myself luckier than most people because our management is very open to the possibility of us working from home. Pilot testing is ongoing to check if the systems and applications can be accessed from our homes. Then there’s that sticky issue of Data Privacy Laws which had to be considered since it’s something we strongly adhere to. They continue to say that health and safety of the employees is their top priority but of course, the management is still trying to preserve business continuity.
While a quarantine is better than nothing, I can’t help but think if this would even be as effective as many of us hope in limiting the contagion. Many still violate the quarantine directives, not learning any lesson from what happened to Italy.
I’m also worried about the long-term effects such as lost of income and livelihood for many daily wage earners, especially when I’m not aware of any contingency measures laid out by the government to financially help them. I am concerned about the impact it’ll do for the industry I’m in (travel and hospitality) and to the entire country’s economy most of all.
In my lifetime I have lived through a massive earthquake, volcanic eruption, strong typhoons and flooding, even coup d'état and military takeover attempts. But nothing that paralyzed the country such as this. Nothing that forced people to stay confined in their homes.
Our usually noisy, crowded neighborhood can now past for a set of The Walking Dead no matter the time of day. Everyone is asked to stay inside their houses (we can only go out to buy our essentials). An 8:00PM - 5:00AM curfew is also observed.
If you think I’m even enjoying this, think again.
But it is what it is. I have to stay at home because even with the precautions, the number of confirmed cases continue to rise. More than what it will do to me income-wise, I’m more worried about catching the virus without me even knowing it, and going home to the kids and my elderly mother.
I hope that we have already seen the worst, and that we can all get through this.
0 comments:
Post a Comment